Devastating fire breaks out in leading paper mill

A devastating fire broke out at the Khanna Paper Mills, one of the leading paper manufacturers of the country, on the Amritsar bypass today. The fire that started at about 2:00 pm from the waste stock yard of the mill picked up briskly, riling up even the mill's owners as well as the district administration. HT reports.

A devastating fire broke out at the Khanna Paper Mills, one of the leading paper manufacturers of the country, on the Amritsar bypass on Tuesday. The fire that started at about 2:00 pm from the waste stock yard of the mill picked up briskly, riling up even the mill's owners as well as the district administration.

The fire was so intense that 50 fire tenders were called in initially and even army personnel were rushed to the spot.

There was about 60 to 70 thousand tonnes of waste paper lying in the mills that caught fire and the estimated loss could be several crores.

The district administration led by Amritsar DC Rajat Aggarwal was personally monitoring the operation. Fire tenders from the Airport, Batala, Beas, Tarn Taran, Jalandhar, Gurdaspur were called in to battle the fire.

By the evening, the fire had spread to residential accommodations behind the mill. The administration was planning to get the houses vacated.

Since paper was burning in heaps, it was tough for the fire extinguishers to completely fight the fire.

Even though the operation to bring things under control was on for five hours it is learnt that it may take two days for things to get back to normal. Speaking to HT, director of the Khanna Paper Mills, Suneet Kochhar said, “We don’t know the reasons but it was panic after the waste paper lying in the stock yard caught fire. It spread at such a pace that within minutes it was all over.”

"The main plant of the mill is safe but we are trying to keep the fire away from the residential area behind. The district administration was fully active and apart from the army it also arranged 50 fire tenders to bring the fire under control," said Kochhar. “We cannot assume the monetary aspect but there was about 70,000 tonnes of paper that got burnt,” he added.

The Khanna Paper supplies newsprint to some of the major newspapers of the region and recently newsprint from here was also exported to Pakistan.

In the evening the district administration, police and the army officials were asked to keep a close eye on the the mill.